Course signs: I’ve been able to install all the FLRC Challenge course signs (and turnaround signs on some courses), so unlike last year when we had to open courses as the conditions permitted, all ten courses will be available for recording times on April 16th. If you look at the various course pages, you’ll see pictures of where the signs are located. If you’re new to the Challenge, read up on how to use Webscorer for timing.
Distances may change: It’s possible that the advertised distances for some courses are slightly off from what the online mapping software reported, and we’ll adjust as reports come from those who’ve run them. I had mapped the Taughannock Rim & Falls course at 4.8 miles, but when I ran it after installing its sign, it came out at 4.6 miles. Don’t stress if there’s a discrepancy—just report in (and collect a community star!), and once we figure out the right distances, the leaderboard will recalculate everything properly.
RunGo directions still coming: I haven’t been able to finish RunGo directions for all the courses. It’s just a matter of finding some time for most of them. The tricky one is going to be the Lick Brook Treman FLT course, which needs feet on the ground and an in-person GPS track. I’m hoping that @Petorius will be up for running that one soon since it’s beyond what I can do right now.
New rules: I’ve taken advantage of Rule #3 (Change Is Inevitable) to add a few rules this year. Notably:
Accommodations Allowed: If a disability prevents you from completing the FLRC Challenge as generally specified, you may apply to the Challenge Director for accommodation. For instance, wheelchair users could be allowed complete the Challenge (and thus win a medal) on only the paved courses, or kids under a certain age could complete agreed-upon abbreviated versions of longer courses that aren’t age-appropriate. Just ask—we’ll figure out something together!
No Hoarding: Although it’s entirely acceptable to record times for later posting if you’re just lazy, you may not hoard and later release efforts for competitive reasons. In other words, no dropping a bunch of previously recorded runs all at once to change leaderboard standings.
New competitions: We also have a new competition, for Community Stars, which is designed to encourage and reward social behavior. For each run, you can earn up to three community stars for running with at least one other person, posting a story or photo from the run, or supporting a local business as part of the run, likely by getting food afterward. How do you get these points?
For a group run, you’ll get a star if at least one person starts their run on the same course within 5 minutes. Obviously, if you’re planning to record your run manually after running, you and your friend must both do so within the same 5-minute window. We’ll watch this and can tweak the window if necessary.
For either story/photo stars or local business stars, you’ll need to post here in the FLRC Challenge forum. I’ll be creating dedicated topics to hold each course’s reports, and there will be a Post Using This Template button in the first message that you can click to create a reply with the proper formatting for the leaderboard code to recognize your post. You must post your report in the proper topic and on the same calendar day as the run to get credit. You use a single post for either or both of a store or a shop local report.
Monthly competitions: We haven’t built this into the leaderboard yet, but we’re going to set it so each of May, June, and July have their own independent results pages. That will enable competing for just the efforts recorded in that month, making it easier for those who are traveling or recovering from injury.
Limited time swag: If you want to order one of the slick new “Cover the Ground” T-shirts, you must register by May 1st. I’ll be placing the shirt order on May 2nd, and it will probably take 5-6 weeks to get them because of the special sublimation process that prints on the entire shirt.
One thing that would be a helpful addition to the course descriptions would be some guidance on operating hours or time frames or when it is frowned upon to be on the course. There seems to be some difference also as to what is official versus what is actually enforced. Taughannock looks to be generically from “dawn to dusk” which would seem to exclude night runs there. I couldn’t find anything on the Lansing Center hours. I am assuming CBG can be run at any time so long as you find a safe place to park? Many of us did night runs at Hammond Hill without issue, so that seems clear. Seems like with Inlet Shore or Waterfront it is more about parking hours than usage hours. I’m guessing nothing is stopping you from being on the Jim Schug or Dryden Rail Trail at any hour? That leaves the parking for Lick Brook. Are their any hours posted at this site?
Good question. I think Stewart Park and the Cornell Botanic Gardens were the only concerns last year.
I do see that Lansing Center Trails are officially closed after dark. There is a housing development in the middle of them, so that’s not entirely unreasonable.
I see that Taughannock says “dawn to dusk” but there’s also camping there, which obviously is all night long.
The Arboretum part of the Beebe Lake course will be closed to cars at night, but I don’t think there’s any issue with going in on foot.
The Lick Brook parking area is pretty informal at the moment, so I very much doubt there will be a sign about hours, but the Finger Lakes Land Trust will be renovating and expanding it this spring (details when I know them) and that might change things. But there are certainly other places you could park for the Finger Lakes Trail if necessary.
I’m unaware of any hours for the Jim Schug Trail or the Dryden Rail Trail or the Inlet Shore Trail course (the Waterfront Trail).
I’m hesitant to ask my contacts for more details, since that might push them to increased levels of caution, just on principle. These are all public areas, and I believe any authorities who would question a nighttime activity would likely accept that you’re running or just tell you not to do it again.
Adam, yes, I believe it’s best that you not inquire as some municipalities may enforce their RRRD ordinances, aka “Rowdy Runners Running in the Dark”. We don’t want that!
I used the template to post my story in the Beebe Lake thread but my star is not showing up on the leaderboard. Please let me know if I did something wrong.
Hmm! Looks good to me—let’s see what @steve-desmond says. Also, your time is “off” by exactly an hour. Could there be a DST setting still to hit somewhere?
Technical details: the time coming from the Discourse API is in UTC, so any time after 8pm (since we’re UTC-4) is seen as “tomorrow” – I thought it would convert to local time by default after all the work we did around that last year, but apparently not! Should just be a 1 line code fix.
It was off by an hour because I couldn’t get the code to scan when we started at 8:45, so I started without scanning the code. When I went to finish at the end, it glitched and didn’t record anything. So I had to start and end the recording at 9:45 instead and edit my time to match my run time. This also meant I didn’t get the community star for the group run. It’s not a huge deal so I didn’t bring it up, but since you asked…
The Lick Brook section of the FLT crosses a tiny chunk of Cornell Natural Lands for (I think) a few hundred yards. There’s a sign saying no trail use after dusk, but it’s the same generic rules sign that’s posted at every Cornell Natural Land trailhead. I’ve been on these trails tons of times after dark and see no reason to avoid it, especially at lower Lick Brook where there are no houses close by.
Are the group run community stars only counted for people who scan the QR code at the start and finish? Suppose you run with someone without scanning and you both manually enter your time after the run within 5 minutes of each other. Is it coded for that to count? Or what if you run solo and by coincidence someone manually enters their time from an earlier day at the same time as you?
I thought of this after reading Heather’s comments and figured others might have the same questions.
No, the leaderboard looks purely at time. As long as your start times are within 5 minutes of each other, it will assume you ran together. And, yes, if you run solo, but someone else arrives just after you on the same course and starts their run within that 5-minute window, it will assume you’ve run together. And maybe you will, if you connect out the course!
Apparently, I forgot to say something about that on the course page—fixed! Yes, there’s plenty of parking alongside the Cornell compost facility access road where the sign is located. You can also park at the Monkey Run or East Hill Rec Way lot or if you don’t need to scan the sign.
If you follow the East Hill Dryden Rail Trail course out toward Route 13 on the map, you’ll see it cross Monkey Run Road at 1.5 miles. That road dead-ends at a parking lot that people use for the extensive trail network in that area. We’re not using the Monkey Run trails for the Challenge because Cornell didn’t want me encouraging hundreds of runners to run on them regularly—they’re a bit sensitive in some areas—but if you’re ever looking for a non-Challenge trail in the area, they’re great.
One last clarification on the Sweet 1600. If you are gong to do a multi-mile effort, is it kosher to simply run your entire workout and then just manually record the split times rather than stopping and restarting the watch for every mile?
I’m loving seeing all the community stars posts coming in already